FCA fines and bans Aviva Investors analyst

The FCA has fined and banned a former investment analyst at Aviva Investors for allocating preferable trades to fee-paying hedge funds.

The regulator has banned Mothahir Miah and fined him £139,000 as he cherry picked trades for the funds he worked on between January 2010 and October 2012.

Miah was authorised to trade on hedge fund and long-only funds, but used weaknesses in the trading systems to delay the booking and allocation of trades. He then allocated the most profitable trades to hedge fund products that earned performance fees and allocated the non beneficial trades to the long-only products.

Mark Steward, director of enforcement at the FCA, says: “Mr Miah abused the trust given to him by his clients in a very clear and deliberate way. It is vital that approved persons operate with honesty and integrity at all times. Mr Miah did not.”

The FCA was also critical of the culture in the fixed income business of Aviva Investors, where Miah worked, which it said put a heavy focus on performance, with staff being promoted based on investment performance.

The FCA previously fined Aviva Investors £17.6m for its failings in the case in February this year and it had to pay significant compensation to investors in long-only funds.